On this date, January 20, 1949, J Edgar Hoover gave Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen.
I suppose if the same transaction took place today Miss Temple would have received an electrifying fountain pen.
I googled J. Edgar Hoover & Shirley Temple hoping maybe to get a picture of J. Edgar presenting Miss Temple the gas pen and didn’t find that, but did come across some other interesting stuff. I think that they both might have had a mutual admiration of each other. To Shirley he was the boss of the All American FBI, the top of G-Men. And maybe to J. Edgar she was what he thought the ideal American female should be: Sweet looking and innocent
The little tap dancer and singer was born in 1928. She was about 21 years old at the time she received her tear gas fountain pen. With that she could bring those producers to the floor if they tried anything “funny”.
It appears that their friendship continued. Less than two years later, she asked Hoover to do a back ground check on Charles Alden Black. She became Mrs. Shirley Temple Black December 26, 1950. J. Edgar Hoover probably gave them his blessings.
